Canada Will Pursue a More Robust Global Role, Minister Says

Image

In a speech to the House of Commons, Chrystia Freeland, the foreign minister, said that Canada would continue to seek opportunities for constructive progress on the environment.CreditChris Wattie/Reuters

OTTAWA — Canada will increase its military spending and its activities in international organizations as the United States seems to be stepping back from its international role, the country’s foreign affairs minister said on Tuesday.

“The United States has truly been the indispensable nation,” the minister, Chrystia Freeland, told the House of Commons. “For their unique, seven-decades-long contribution to our shared peace and prosperity, and on behalf of all Canadians, I would like to profoundly thank our American friends.”

She then went on to suggest that era had come to a close.

“Many of the voters in last year’s presidential election cast their ballots animated in part by a desire to shrug off the burden of world leadership,” she told the chamber, never mentioning President Trump by name. “The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course.”

The stated purpose of the speech was to outline the Canadian government’s foreign policy priorities. “On the military front, Canada’s geography has meant that we have always been able to count on American self-interest to provide a protective umbrella beneath which we have found indirect shelter,” Ms. Freeland said.

“To rely solely on the U.S. security umbrella would make us a client state,” she said. “And although we have an incredibly good relationship with our American friends and neighbors, such a dependence would not be in Canada’s interest.”

“Canadian diplomacy and development sometimes require the backing of hard power,” Ms. Freeland said. “To have that capacity requires a substantial investment, which this government is committed to making.”

She added: “Canada’s broader interest in investing in a capable, professional and robust military is very clear: If middle powers do not implicate themselves in the furtherance of peace and stability around the world, that will be left to the great powers to settle among themselves. This would not be in Canada’s interest.”

Ms. Freeland offered no details about the extent of the military spending increase. That may come in a policy address on Wednesday by Harjit Sajjan, the defense minister. But the renewed military commitment may be welcomed by Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly complained that many American allies have been free-riders when it comes to their defense.

Such complaints have been directed toward Canada by a succession of American administrations since at least the 1970s, when Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau — the father of Justin Trudeau, the current prime minister — sharply cut the country’s military budget.

Ms. Freeland echoed the younger Mr. Trudeau’s remark that Canada was “deeply disappointed” over Mr. Trump’s decision last week to take the United States out of the Paris accord on climate change.

She said that Canada would continue to “strongly support” multinational organizations like NATO, the United Nations and the World Trade Organization. And she emphasized the government’s desire to expand relations with Europe, which recently signed a free-trade pact with Canada.

Opposition members of Parliament criticized a lack of specifics in her address.

“The speech, for the most part, was unremarkable today except for the accent on hard power,” Peter Kent, a Conservative, told CTV News, while noting that the government had recently reduced military spending in its budget.

“There were a lot of platitudes today,” Mr. Kent said. “It was a rushed policy tabling to enable tomorrow’s defense policy statement, which will have much more meat, much more detail — we hope.”

Follow Ian Austen on Twitter @ianrausten

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Canada Plans More Spending On Its Military. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe